


The Flutters of The Past

by invisobella



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Tried, Memories, Watching, Whole Cake Island Arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22168378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invisobella/pseuds/invisobella
Summary: A strange set of circumstances has the crew reunited. They must now go thorough a series of memories to get out and back to what they need to do.This is a Sanji memory fic, and takes place during the the night before the wedding.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 71





	1. A Gentle Breeze

**Author's Note:**

> Hey-o, I'll keep this brief, this mostly self indulgent fanfic. I've wanted a memory fic for so long but unfortunately no one has written one, so I decided to do it. Feel free to comment, just not hate, I'm not a writer, I'm doing this for fun. But constructive criticism is alway welcome  
> -thank you

The sound of water hitting wood could be heard, the waves gently causing the boat to bob. A cloudless and darkening sky was allowing a calm pleasant atmosphere to grace the passengers of the vessel. Despite the seemingly perfect day, among some of the voyagers a group had a subtle uneasy feeling that one could miss if you were not paying attention. A dark haired woman sat in a chair on the deck reading, seemingly unaware of her companions on said deck, across from her was a dark haired man with a long nose,who was sitting next to a large robotic man discussing tools and an odd contraption between them.

“Franky, what else should we do to improve this?” the dark haired man asked the cyborg. “I don’t know usopp-bro, I’m not really sure how you improve a mixer more then we have, it's pretty super already.” he answered honestly. Looking at the contraption you would not think it was a mixer, it seemed to look more like kids stuck whatever they could on it. Off to the other side you can hear a scoff from a green haired man doing leg exercises with weights. “Why are you messing with a mixer anyway?” he asked voice slightly strained from the effort of lifting “Not like shit cook will want to use it anyway.”

Usopp and Franky turned to the man “Well Zoro, if you must know, we thought it would be nice to give him a gift when he came back.” Usopp explained. Zoro doesn’t look at them, but he rolls his eyes. “If you missed ero cook that much you should have gone with them.”. “It was because of your idea that we split up in the first place.” Usopp argued back. Zoro let his weight fall down at his feet with a loud thud, “What was that?” Usopp started to hide behind Franky as Zoro approached the pair. “Whoa sword-bro, just calm down.” Franky interjected trying to calm down the swordsman. 

“Now boys this is no time to be fighting, we all miss Sanji.” a smooth female voice cutting through the tension. Franky and Usopp looked absolutely relieved she joined the conversation “Thank you Robin!” they sighed. Zoro made a noise in the back of his throat and had a look of disgust “Who said I missed him?” he retorted. Robin merely chuckled, looking up from her book for the first time. “I recall that today was an arm work-out scheduled, not a leg one.”. Zoro made a face that let her know she was spot on, despite the fact he would never admit it.

“I know we’re all seem tense but we should trust our super friends.” Franky interjected. Robin looked at him and raised an eyebrow, “Oh, and what makes you think I'm worried Franky?” she asked curiously. Franky pointed one of his fingers towards the book resting in her lap, “Those are fairy tales from the North Blue, right?” he asked raising his sunglasses up. She nodded in response “yes, you are correct.” a thoughtful expression on her face. An uneasy silence followed, but before it could get awkward, “Franky's right, shit cook and the rest are fine, I'm sure he's fawning over the witch right now.” zoro interrupted and crossed his arms. The other Strawhats looked at Zoro and smiled, act as he might he cared just as much, but he had full faith in his friends, "right!" They cheered, spirits lifted. As they were about to go back to their tasks, a black and white butterfly fluttered onto the deck, and landed on Usopp's long nose. 

The group looked to the butterfly puzzled, "That's odd butterfly's don't usually come out this far to sea,it's a death sentence." Robin informed the group calmly. "Must you be so morbid?" Usopp asked weakly looking to the archeologist with despair, Robin merely gave a small smile. The butterfly fluttered to Franky resting on his hair, which was styled in his old slicked up hair. "Do you think it was inside the cabins and got out?" Franky asked. "No way, we would have noticed it sooner." Usopp said watching it flutter towards the swordsman. 

Zoro watched it land on his sword, 

Wado Ichimonji, to be more precise. "Well however it got on isn't going to matter, it's like Robin said, it's basically dead now." As he watched it leave and flutter to the mentioned woman. Robin held out a finger and it landed on it. 

"Whoa How'd you do that?" Usopp asked admiration in his voice. "Lucky guess." She replied, admiring its beauty. 

The butterfly was fairly large with black lines filled with white, a small black body. It fluttered it's wings a few more times then took off into the sea sky. Leaving the curious Strawhats to watch it go. "Well that was something." Robin said after a few minutes. The group nodded and went back to their previous activities before the sun fully set on their relatively quiet day, and they went to bed. letting the strange incident go, thoughts of concern wondering how their friends were doing. 

~Meanwhile on Whole Cake Island~

(Night before the wedding)

An orange haired woman sat looking at the chocolate rain that fell from the mirror that was outside. She had a deep contemplating look on her face. "Nami-san I think you need to get some rest." A voice broke through her thoughts, she looked over to see a skeleton with an afo crouching down and sitting next to her.

"I know Brook, it's just, I can't stop thinking about earlier." She told him hugging her knees to her chest. Brook placed a bony hand on her shoulder "I can hardly imagine what it must have looked like to see such a brutal attack if what you say is true." and gave a companionate look, despite not having facial features anymore due to being all bone. "It must of been hard to watch." 

Nami nodded tears welling in the corners of her eyes, she was so confused emotionally, logically she knew why he did it, but it didn't hurt any less. A gentle touch was placed on her leg, she looked over to see a reindeer, who was trying to comfort her, she gave a smile. "Thank you chopper." Placing a hand on his head as a thanks. "I'm ok guys, it'll turn out alright, Luffy will handle Sanji.".

The other two nodded and settled down to get some rest for an hour or two, Nami and Chopper together, while Brook was off to the side. "Nami-san?" Brook asked out of the blue "can I perhaps see your panties as a goodnight gift?" Unfortunately, he wasn't able to say More because the the navigator punched him "Hell No!" She screamed at him angrily. A quiet pained"yohoho" could be heard from the skeleton. 

As Brook was getting up he saw something black and white enter his view and land on his afo. He tried to reach up and feel it when a high pitched voice stopped him. "Wait brook you'll hurt it if you do that!" Chopper told him. Right as he set his hand down he saw a butterfly enter his view and land on chopper's nose. "What is a butterfly doing here?" Nami asked getting up from her spot, where she had laid down. Chopper giggled as the butterfly moved a bit tickling his nose, before flying off and landing on Nami's left shoulder. 

Nami stared at the creature, it was really pretty. "I'm not sure perhaps it came with us by accident" Brook offered. The butterfly flew off Nami's shoulder fluttered over their heads bit before flying through the mirror and out of view. The group was a bit confused about the Random butterfly encounter, but brushed it aside, they've experienced weirder. 

Nami yawned "I'm going to try and get some sleep." She told her two companions. Chopper nodded and rubbed his eyes. "I think I'll join you."He told her. Almost as soon as they laid down they were out, not that Brook blamed them, they had a rough time and needed the rest. For his part he felt refreshed, but something kept making him want to sleep. Eventually he lost the battle and was soon asleep.

~Elsewhere~

A butterfly landed delicately on an outstretched hand, through the shadows, a smile could be made out on the figures face. The butterfly flapped its wings 7 times then it disappeared. The figure, let's their arm drop to their side the figure turned to his further in the shadows.

"Good Luck Strawhats, you'll need it."


	2. Into the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm genuinely surprised people are reading this and I wanna say thank you. I'm not big into writing but this has been a blast writing for.   
> Thank you

He slowly got up and looked around, not that he had eyes to see with (skull joke). He noticed he was not in the mirror world with nami, Jimbe and chopper, he was surrounded by darkness, but somehow was able to see himself just fine. Brook decided to stand up and perhaps walk somewhere else. Only as he did, he kept only seeing the black. 

"Well this is strange." He thought aloud, a habit he still had from his years of isolation. "Where am I, where are the others, is this a dream?". He would have pinched himself to check but alas he had no skin. As he was beginning to feel uneasy, he noticed a figure in the distance. "Hello" he called out "can you perhaps tell me where I am?"

As he got closer, he was shocked at who he say "Brook?!?" Usopp called out running towards the bewildered skeleton "is that you, I must be dreaming." Brook gives usopp a quick hug. "Just when I was beginning to think this was a nightmare.".Usopp pulled away from the hug, "but...this is my dream?" Confusion on his face. 

Brook pondered this, "that can't be this is my dream." He told the sniper. Just as they were starting to drift apart in fear, they heard a voice call to them, and there they saw, their friends, Nami,Zoro,Franky, Chopper and Robin waving to them and cheering. "Guys!!"the two called ignoring their suspicion instead running towards, embracing the friends they missed dearly.

It was a wonderful moment, where even the more stone faced crew members were smiling wide. Franky, usopp, Chopper and Brook hugged each other while tears streamed down their faces. Robin and Nami were chatting happily asking what the other was up to recently. Zoro watched, before getting pulled into the group hug by Franky, despite protesting loudly to it, causing the crew to laugh. They did notice that they were missing two, and felt the missing presence of their captain and cook a lot. 

After their love-fest, the crew took a step back, Robin then gained everyone's attention. "As we're all Wondering, from what I've gathered, we seem to be dreaming, however all of us say we are the ones dreaming, but the question is, whose dream is this?" She eyeballed each straw hat with a critical eye and small smile on her face. Before the crew could answer a strong wind came upon them, it was defending and almost blinding, even Zoro was struggling to guard himself from it's blast. When it died down, the noticed a humongous, monster. 

It looked like a butterfly, but morphed into something more horrific. It's wings were tattered and torn having blood stains on its white and black patterns. It's body was pure black with grotesque black ooze coming from it, covered in more blood as well as scars. The head had many horns, it's teeth were sharp, forked tongue hanging out, spitting saliva and blood. Underneath the beast a hooded figure stood. 

"Hello Strawhats." The echoey voice said, it was in a hushed tone, but easily heard. The strawhats took defensive stances, taking out weapons, ready for a fight if need be. The figure tilted its head, almost as if to mock the group. "well, there's no need for that, I don't plan to hurt any of you."Not moving from their stances, Zoro stepped forward. "what do you want then?" Zoro asked harshly, his narrowed eyes never leaving the stranger. A cruel smile began to spread on the figures face " well you see, my dear, pet here needs to eat-"

"Sorry bro, but none of us want to be monster food today." Franky cut in. The figure just shook their Head, "it does not want you, it wishes to feast on an easier target, a certain cook of yours should do the trick." The beast gave a shriek as if confirming this fact. "But he isn't here, and even if he was, sanji isn't food!" Chopper yelled back from his kung-fu point, a chorus of agreement followed to the doctors statement. 

"Poor naive reindeer." It cooed mocking " It feeds on memories, and his will do nicely." Robin's eyes widened, "then this, isn't a dream." She said letting the gravity of her words sink in with her crew. Their shock was evident on their faces as they looked at Robin. "Th-that's not true, if you can just do that why are we here?" Nami asked confused, panic rising in her chest, despite this she still holds her stance gripping her climatic staff tighter. The figure started to laugh,a cruel, a hissing sound almost. 

"You strawhats are a riot, so easy to predict what you want, to put it simply, I'm bored and I want to offer you a deal to entertain me." Their hand raised, causing all the strawhats to tense in anticipation, when a flock of butterflies came towards it and dropped something, before leaving. Holding the object for the confused crew to see, the figure continued. "Hidden in the memories of your friend I intend to feed my beast, is a key. Find it, and I leave you be, simple right.". The crew looked at the figure distrust clearly seen on their faces. “And if we lose you’re game?” Robin asked, arms folded over her chest ready to attack at any given moment. The figure let their hand drop the key seemingly disappearing from sight, “then he’ll do what he does best and feed my beast.”. 

At that Usopp, had finally heard Enough. "Like we'd let you do that." He shot an exploding star at the figure, the figures made no attempt at dodging, it nearly passed through them harmlessly before falling behind and exploding on the ground. The crew stood there shocked, Zoro and Robin narrowed their eyes. "I knew something was off, my observation haki wasn't detecting you.” Zoro growled out. The crew looks even more visibly shaken, who was this stranger. The figure grins “Do we have a deal?”, the strawhats look at each other, knowing what they had to do next. “It would appear we don't have a choice in this.” Brook finally spoke up. “Very good, remember the key is in the memories, go through and see if you can save him.” As the figure turns to go, usopp interrupted “ How will we know we found the key?”. The figure paused. “You'll know, know go, Before I change my mind. The strong wind that had blown earlier came back, almost twice as strong. When the winds finally died down, the figure and butterfly monster were gone. 

The strawhats breathe a sigh of relief before putting their weapons away. They look at one another, the silence was tangabe till chopper broke it. “What did they mean by the memories?” he asked. Franky raised his sunglasses “Seems pretty vague for a challenge if you ask me.”.

“It doesn't matter now, what matters is making sure sanji is ok, I don't know what they meant by memories but we have to” Nami interrupted "she bite her lip worry on her face. Zoro let out a big sigh of what seemed to be disappointment"unfortunately, looks like it's up to us to save shit cook." He crossed his as ready for the challenge to begin. "Yohoho, so cruel Zoro-san" Brook told the young swordsman.  
They stood around unsure what they were supposed to be waiting for, "uh, when exactly are we going to start the challenge?" Usopp asked. Just as he said that he got his answer, a blinding white light surrounded them, replacing the previous darkness.   
Robin's words "Here we go." We're the last thing they heard before the light overtook them.


	3. A Day Before Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey-o thanks for reading this, like I said I'm not a writer so it's pretty cool people are giving this a chance, updating may take longer but the chapters will be longer too. Thanks for reading

The strawhats were still surrounded by the white light, as it started to dim they could hear the sound of light chatter and the clatter of dishes, almost as if they were in a diner. When their eyes finally adjusted they saw they were in a restaurant. The tables were circular with white cloths over them, a rather large crowd of patrons surrounded them, but ignored the confused Strawhats. 

"Whe-where are we?" Chopper asked watching waiter bustle around ignoring their existence. Going up and down the spiral staircase in the center of the room. When the Nami reached out to tap on the waiters shoulder her hand merely went through. The panic that followed was immediate, Brook,Usopp, Franky and Chopper screamed they we're dead while hugging and crying. Nami was freaking out touching her face, arms and body as if to check it was there. Zoro merely stood there watching the chaos, while Robin had a contemplating look on her face, as if intrigued at the prospect of being a ghost. 

"It would appear that there are two possible reasons we are like this." Robin calmly said. The group stopped panicking to look at her.

"Two options? What do you mean by that?" Franky asked raising his sunglasses to look at archeologist. 

"Option one is we are dead and are in the after life." Robin gave a small chuckle at the end of the sentence

"STOP THAT ROBIN, YOU'RE BEING TOO SCARY!!!" the weakling trio and Brook exclaimed loudly.

The noiret merely smiled, "or we could be viewing a dream containing memories." The crew gave a puzzled look till, Nami realized why this place seemed so familiar. 

"Is this-?" Nami asked a look of reconizon her face. Usopp and Zoro also gained similar looks when she had said those words. Before any of them could say anything a large bulky man stood up quickly and punched the waiter serving him. The strawhats had different levels of shock on their face, Zoro and Robin merely looked at the scene with shades eyes. 

"You call this slop food? No way am I paying for this crap, in fact I demand to speak with the bastard who made this." He yelled before throwing the food at the poor wait staff who was trembling before running up the staircase screaming for the head-chef. 

The strawhats watched the development, the part of the crew who had joined after Luffy sailed to the grandline(excluding Robin who had a knowing look on her face) shook their heads, thanking whatever stars that Sanji wasn't around to see this display. The East blue joined crewmates merely stood silently watching, if what Robin had said was true then this next part would confirm it. 

"So is this the guy who had a problem with my food?" A very familiar voice suddenly interrupted the Strawhats musings and the bulky man's tantrum. As the owner of the voice slowly walked down the stairs, a trail of smoke followed due to the cigarette hanging from their lips. The crew gave an excited look, this was perfect they were now going to be down with one member. 

"Sanji!!" Chopper, Brook and the wano team (excluding Robin and Zoro) cheered. Nami stood back looking towards where Sanji would be, an uneasy expression on her face. This didn't go unnoticed by their ever observant Robin, who made a mental note to ask about that later. Sanji, for his part, hadn't acknowledged the sound of his friend's voices. As he stepped into the view of the crew and the restaurant the strawhats immediately knew something was wrong. 

This version of the cook was younger and shorter than the one they knew. Who had a far thinner frame than that of his current self. A short almost Bob haircut with blonde hair that covered his left eye entirely. He was looking Coolly at the bulky man, almost an indifferent air to him, though the crew could sense his anger. 

When the bulky man didn't answer Sanji took a step forward

"I'll ask again, are you the guy who insulted my cooking and my waiters?"

The bulky man shook out of whatever stupor he was in and stood to his full height, trying to intimidate the seemingly indifferent man. He looked the cook up and down,after a few seconds he seemed the cook weak ('what an idiot') the crew collectively thought. 

"Yeah I did actually, it was utter shit, so I sent it back with the waiter." The man sneered down at sanji, who still seemed to have his cool. "I demand a refund and better food." He smirked waiting for sanji to back down and apologize, which Sanji would do neither.

"Is that all?" Sanji asked raising his eyebrows, the question more a challenge than a question. The idiot man merely laughed, taking it as a sign he had won. 

"And maybe some of the money on board." He pulled out a pistol and waved it around haphazardly, causing an immediate panic to fill the room. The strawhats looked at the scene knowing how this will play out and we're looking forward to it, this jackass was about to get what's his.

Before the man could blink, sanji's leg lashed out and sent him flying into an empty table. As the man was just beginning to gain his senses, sanji kicked him up and sent him flying out the doors that some cooks, who had previously gone unnoticed, had opened.

"You think you can come into this restaurant demand what you want and waste food?" Sanji's voice showing the emotion for the first time, his barely controlled anger from before could be heard. The man scrambled up, fear in his eyes. Zoro rolled his eyes, he had forgotten how weak the crooks in East blue were. 

"Yohoho, looks like this is turning out to be a one-sided fight." Brook interrupted the silence the crew previously had. As they watched Sanji literally kick the man's ass. They decided to discuss what was happening. 

"As much fun as it is watching assholes like this get what for, what and why exactly are we seeing this?" Franky asked, eyes never leaving the "fight".

"I'd have to say we seem to be watching memories, more specifically, cook-san's." Robin replied enjoying the show. 

"Why are we seeing this?” Usopp asked “ I mean, we all know that Sanji is like this.” he had a confused look on his face. “If this is a memory, when exactly is it?” 

“For that I don't have an answer I'm afraid.” Robin replied, looking to Nami and Zoro to perhaps shine some light on the situation. 

After a minute of thinking it was surprisingly the swordsman who remembered. “Weren't they short on staff or something, I think I remember shit-cook bitching about that.” but added “ Not that he doesn't bitch now.” A snarky smile appeared on his face. Nami just sighed and had an exasperated look on her face. 

“Zoro, he’s not even here, why are you even insulting him?” a hand on her forehead as if she had a headache.

Zoro merely crossed his arms. “Trust me he’ll know.” with a certain confident tone to his voice. Nami gives his wonderful confidence a hard punch to the head that has him on the ground in an instant. Brook, Chopper and Usopp coward away, hoping she doesn’t turn her wrath on them. Forgetting as long as they don’t add to the stupid they would be fine. 

“Idiot.” she hissed under her breath “But he’s right, the Baratie was shorthanded when we came, so this is obvious this is before we came.” she notices Zoro get up from her punch, having a sulky expression on his face. A satisfied look came on he face.

“Scary.’’ Chopper whispered, still hugging on to his friends, thankfully out of her earshot. 

“thats super to know sis, but that doesn’t explain why.” Franky added. 

“maybe we’re here to look for that ‘Key’ the hooded figure was talking about.” Usopp piped up. The three cowards had finally stood up, realizing they were going to be ok. “ I mean that's the only thing that would make sense.” 

“That seems to be the case, so I’m assuming we have to follow cook-san to fin said keys.” the ever knowing Robin added to Usopp’s previous statement. 

“I know this would be helping Sanji-san but I just can’t help but feel we are violating his mind.” Brook spoke up having been relatively quiet up until that point. The other members of the crew looked at each other, almost all had the same thoughts but hadn’t thought to say it out loud.

“As much as I hate to say it, Brook is right, Unfortunately if things are going to go the way as it seems, we will probably see things that are probably very personal to cook-san. “ Robin looked at the memory Sanji, who was currently beating up the crew of the bulky man, who turned out to be a pirate. She usually was one to want to learn about the past, but she knew this was something no one should see, a person's memories were something no one should prod. 

“There is nothing we can do, so we just have to try and find this key before we get too far in.” Zoro told the now concerned crew. Nami bit her lip, she wasn’t sure she could handle it. 

“Zoro’s right we’ll find the key and save sanji.” chopper added, feeling of confusion was pushed aside when the need to help his friend pushed his way into his chest. The rest of the crew gathered the resolve and looked back at sanji, who had finally finished beating up the crew and was now kicking them towards their boat.

"And don't come back shit-heads!" He yelled before turning on his heel to only to see the staff of waiters carrying suitcases, having tears in their eyes.   
"Where the hell do you bastards think you're going? We don't pay you lazy bums to stand around"

"We have had enough sous-chef! This place is way too dangerous, day after day it's been one fight after another, with us getting the brunt of it." One explained in a hurried manner.

Sanji for his part looked at the group of 10ish men. The soon to be former waiters looked at sanji with fear in their eyes. Almost as if Sanji was going to turn his previous anger out on them. They were trembling and standing out of immediate kicking range. Sanji raised a curly eyebrow at the group, silently asking them for the rest of their reasons they decided to jump ship

"You don't help either, everyday It's a fight with you." That statement was enough to unleash the onslaught of comments from the group. The strawhats were pretty surprised with how many they had against him. 

"You always use violence whenever you're angry."

"You tried to steal my girlfriend when she came to visit." 

"You always think you're right."

"You have to be the cruelest boss, if not person I've ever worked for." The accusations just kept coming, seemingly trying to point out every flaw the cook of the crew had. 

"This is rather mean spirited." Brook commenting on what most of the Strawhats were thinking. It was rather off putting to hear strangers tell of their friend. 

Sanji just sighed and walked towards the group of men. They reared back in fear, but Sanji just walked right past them, the looks of confirmation on their faces was almost instant. 

"That's fine with me, just don't bother coming back." Sanji told the men in a flat even tone. The group didn't need to be told twice, they seemed to have made the decision long ago, they had a boat ready to go. As they ran past the Strawhats, Robin heard one of the men mutter.

"Thought he'd put up a fight." That was interesting, a fight to what? Keep them, punish them? Robin was unsure and that made her feel uneasy, but she kept a straight face nonetheless. She turned her attention inside, where Sanji had already started helping guests. Taking up the role of server easily. 

"I know sanji has a temper, but that was harsh." Usopp said looking at his friend. Sure those waiters were scared and that was understandable, but a lot of what they said just seemed unreasonable to blame Sanji for. Sanji was pretty lenient when it came to telling people what to do. Only ever really getting mad when people (Luffy) were stealing food, and the kick that eventually followed wasn't even that bad. Yep they had to be exaggerating Usopp decided.

"Exactly, Sanji-kun may flirt with taken woman, (or any woman), but he'd never intentionally sabotage a relationship." Nami agreed, feeling defensive of the fawning cook. 

"That may be true, but can we really say those men are totally wrong?" Robin asked. She hated to admit but something about this past version, one she was never aware of, reminded her of how she was, guarded, almost as though he was intentional putting his qualities first. 

"ROBIN!" Chopper exclaimed, "How can you say that? Sanji's our friend, we know him better then than anyone." He was slightly shocked Robin would say something like that. She was usually the perceptive one of the crew. Zoro walked over and patted Chopper's head to calm him down. It seemed to work as chopper's whole body loosened up.

"I hate to say it but chopper's right, shit cook is a pushover pansy." Before Robin could give an answer a gruff voice interrupted the relative peace. 

"Why the hell aren't you in the kitchen?" The strawhats and Sanji, who was tending to patrons, looked up at the voice. There stood a rather intimidating figure, an old blond man with a wrinkled face. On that face was a twin braided, blond, mustache. He was wearing chefs whites and had a ridiculously tall chefs hat. The strangest part of all was his peg leg. He was looking at Sanji with his arms folded and a hard glare. Sanji gave a flat look back, not backing down. 

"That's Sanji's old boss, I think his name was...jeff?" Usopp answered although It was more of a question.

"No you idiot it was Zeff." Zoro corrected him, before turning back to the argument in the making.

"Well shitty geezer, if you must know, All the shitty waiters decided to jump ship." Sanji replied, voice calm.

Zeff looked at Sanji, who if you didn't know him looked absolutely unfazed, the Strawhats and probably Zeff could see his little nervous habit of reaching in his pocket for a cigarette. Although he couldn't have one in the restaurant, you could see his hand. 

"You know the rules, since you scared them off you're on wait duty." With that Zeff turned around to head to the stairs. 

"Yeah." Sanji replied back, then for a split second they heard a waiver of sadness in his voice. Robin turned to Zeff and saw him pause at that. He must have heard it too. 

"For what it's worth they weren't worth much anyway, yellow bellied idiots, so don't beat yourself up too hard." Zeff said, still walking up the stairs not looking at Sanji. 

At that the room started to go black around the strawhats. They started to panic a bit till Nami told them

"Wait maybe this is what's supposed to happen." They looked at her confused so she elaborates "we're looking for a key right? Since it's in his memories somewhere we have to look through them, maybe this is the hint we get, it'll only show us scenes where the key might be."

"Wow sis, that was pretty super of you to figure out that fast." Franky compliments. 

"I have to agree, it's the only solution that would make sense." Robin replied.

"So was there a key there?" Usopp asked, looking nervous at the prospect of failing already.

"No, I don't think so, nothing in that seemed to have a key." Chopper looked up at the group "I've been doing some thinking, maybe we aren't looking for an actual key, maybe we're supposed to find different things to make the key, but each piece is in a different memory." The group looked at chopper with surprise, even the girls hadn't thought of that solution, though it made sense. 

"If that's true then we missed a piece." Zoro comments calmly. 

"Nope" and with that chopper held up an apron, the one that the waiter who had food on him was wearing. 

'' how did you get that?" The collective group asked the reindeer

" Well when those waiters were running past one of them threw their apron on where I was standing and instead of falling through me like it normally would it landed on top of my face. I figured since we usually can't touch anything it must be important." He explained. 

"Well no wonder you figured it out so fast, good job." Nami gave him a quick high five and took the apron to look at it. "But why is this important?" Nami asked.

" Maybe because when they left Sanji-san didn't have any friends left." Brook added, he was being rather quiet. The strawhats looked at Brook so he elaborates "Sanji-san just seemed so lonely, if what I remember he grew up on this ship, so I'd imagine he wouldn't make many friends, and that waiter looked about his age, meaning perhaps when they left Sanji's friend left too, though I'm just guessing." 

The group was quiet, they hadn't thought about it like that, even Zoro felt a pang of sympathy for the cook. That's a classic case of being lonely in a crowded room. Sanji was very social, he loved talking to anyone and everyone. Wherever you go shopping with him, he takes just as long as the girls to get his things. Mostly due to talk anyone's ear off. Perhaps it's a habit from being around people that constantly left. 

Before anyone else could comment a blinding light came back.

"Get ready guys, the next part is coming up." Nami told them covering her eyes from the light, just before it over took them.


End file.
